The gastrointestinal (GI) tract generally contains a wealth of information regarding an individual's body. For example, contents in the GI tract may provide information regarding the individual's metabolism. An analysis of the contents of the GI tract may also provide information for identifying relationships between the GI content composition (e.g., relationship between bacterial and biochemical contents) and certain diseases.
Present methods and devices for analyzing the gastrointestinal (GI) tract are limited in terms of the type and amount of data that can be retrieved from the GI tract. For example, conventional devices and methods are generally directed to provide basic information about the GI tract, such as environment conditions (e.g., acidity level, electrical impedance, pressure, temperature, etc.) and/or whether a particular substance (e.g., blood) is present or not. Other relevant information regarding the GI tract (e.g., temporal and spatial information about the bacterial and chemical populations and interactions) is generally unavailable with present technology. However, these conventional devices are generally triggered to sample or release substances when the devices come into contact with particular GI substances, which may limit their effectiveness.